Month: May 2011

Revised budget doesn’t revise vote count

The revised budget Gov. Jerry Brown released Monday does not seem any more likely to win Republican votes than the governor’s original plan, which stalled in the Legislature over the question of whether to extend billions of dollars in expiring taxes.

Portrait of California paints picture of disparities

Despite its laid back image, California has long been a state of extremes, in its weather, its culture and its politics. Now a new report shows how the state is divided among rich and poor, educated and not, the healthy and those prone to illness. The “Portrait of California,” in fact, shows how all of these factors are woven together to produce a patchwork of neighborhoods, counties and regions with disparities that are the equivalent of a century of human development.

Housing slump gives breathing room to land use debates

Tim Sanchez has learned what many urban dwellers find out when they move into homes on the edge of farming areas: the promise of a bucolic life near open farm fields gives way to the reality of modern industrial farming. Noise, dust, odors, flies, chemical spraying and night operations are as much a part of modern farming as green fields and neat rows of orchard trees. The situation isn’t much fun for the farmer, either. So what’s the solution? The slump in new home sales has allowed some breathing room to think about the issues. Everyone from city zoning officials to animal nutritionists are working on easing urban-rural conflicts.

Bridging the digital divide. Part 2.

Just three weeks ago, Trelena Thomas was learning the computer basics—the difference between right and left mouse clicks and what a URL is. Now, in the second installment of our three part series, watch as Thomas and her daughters bridge the digital divide with their first home computer, a former County of San Diego desktop refurbished by the San Diego Futures Foundation. Now come the bigger questions: who gets to play games first and is Facebook allowed?

California Needs A Common-Sense Approach to Health Care Cost Containment

As California continues toward implementation of federal health care reform, efforts to contain health care costs have become increasingly critical, and all parties to the health care delivery system share responsibility. California health insurers, however, have implemented many procedures and protocols under the guise of cost containment that threaten the doctor-patient relationship and interfere with effective patient care by denying or delaying patient treatment. These practices carry innocuous-sounding names, such as “prior-” or “pre-authorization,” “pre-approval,” or “step edits,” but the impact can be anything but innocuous.

Assembly Republicans offer budget outline

Days before Gov. Jerry Brown releases his revised budget proposal for the coming year, Republicans in the state Assembly have offered their own outline they say would balance the budget without renewing temporary taxes that have expired or about to do so. The plan would protect Kindergarten through community college education, giving the schools the same amount Brown has already proposed, and avoid any more cuts in the state’s four-year public universities.

Budget debt cuts into money for programs

Just like many California families making critical checkbook decisions, the state must always balance immediate needs against planning for the future. But when times turn more turbulent, governors and lawmakers whip out the charge card with growing frequency as a way to avoid making even deeper cuts in current spending.

Juvenile justice reformer urges collaboration

California’s state prison population has remained stubbornly high over the past decade. The new Alameda County Chief Probation Officer wants to lead his department in a new direction, one that focuses on prevention. David Muhammad, an Oakland native, favors an approach that promotes incentives to good behavior, rehabilitation and alternatives to incarceration. These are the kinds of methods, according to Muhammad, that get the best results – less people in prison and on probation and parole.

Fewer bullies, more leaders

In a tiny school district on the outskirts of Stockton, a progressive elementary school principal is incorporating the work of leadership icon Stephen Covey to produce some surprisingly youthful leaders: an entire student body of over 500 kindergarten through 6th graders. Principal Nancy Martin hopes to end school violence and bullying by creating responsible students guided by strong student leaders. Her ambitious goal and the methods she employs place her on the cutting edge of violence prevention in the schools, joining leaders from across California and the nation who are trying new methods to change their campus culture.

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